Order 66
Order 66, also known as Clone Protocol 66, was one of a series of contingency orders that the clone troopers of the Grand Army of the Republic were trained to obey without hesitation. The order branded members of the Jedi Order as traitors to the Republic and called for their immediate execution without question or hesitation. The issuing of the order by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine marked the formal beginning of the Great Jedi Purge, and signified the rise of the Galactic Empire. It was chief among the atrocities that led to the Galactic Civil War. Almost all of the Jedi were killed by Order 66, and most of the survivors were killed in the Great Jedi Purge that followed. The Jedi Order survived through the acts of surviving Jedi, such as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda, teaching Luke Skywalker the ways of the Force. History Prelude to Order 66 Order 66 could be found in the document entitled Contingency Orders for the Grand Army of the Republic: Order Initiation, Orders 1 through 150, GAR Document CO(CL) 56-95, a document containing a series of special contingency orders that covered any and all emergency situations, which the clones that comprised the GAR were prepared to execute, immediately and without question, and only in specific cases of extreme necessity. It was originally designed as a fail-safe by Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas against rogue jedi. Some of these orders concerned contingencies any armed force could conceivably face. Many dealt with contingencies specifically involving the GAR Supreme Commander—in this case, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine—and the effect on the chain of command were he ever to become incapacitated or declared unfit to issue orders. In particular, Order 65 dealt with the detention and possible execution of the Supreme Chancellor by the Republic, further hiding the true intention of Order 66. Sufficiently buried among the other one hundred forty-nine orders so as to almost escape notice, Contingency Order 66 specifically dealt with the effect on the chain of command were issues to arise involving the Jedi. The exact text of the order ran: Under closer examination, the text of Order 66 exposed several distinctions that set it apart from the other contingency orders. First, the majority of the other known contingency orders took into account other sources of command authority—the Vice Chair Mas Amedda, the Senate Security Committee, the Jedi Council, the GAR High Command—while Order 66 could only be issued by the GAR Supreme Commander—in this case, Palpatine himself. Second, it was not required that the Security Council or a Senate majority declare that the Jedi were acting against Republic interests; Palpatine alone had the power to make that determination. Third, GAR commanders were not required to authenticate the order, or even to report it to any other command authority. If the order came directly from Palpatine, using specific command phrasing and over specific communications channels pre-approved by him for this express purpose, that was all the authentication the clone commanders appear to have needed. Fourth, there was no apparent mechanism for rescinding the order. Once given, it had to be followed. Finally, there was no proviso—as there were in other known contingency orders—that the Jedi were to be detained and that lethal force should be used if necessary; the order explicitly specified that they were to be removed by lethal force. Though the true purpose of this specific command was to satisfy Darth Sidious's personal wish to eliminate the Jedi as a threat to his power, the insistence on lethal force could have been rationalized for general—that is, non-Sith—consumption: it could be argued that any attempt to detain a Jedi who did not wish to be detained would fail, except in the event that said Jedi was faced with overwhelming GAR numbers, and even then, such an attempt would likely result in numerous unnecessary GAR casualties. The use of lethal force, in that event, would therefore automatically be considered necessary to preserve the lives of GAR soldiers and officers. In 20 BBY, however, the Order was nearly prematurely exposed due to a malfunction in Tup's biochip that resulted in his alternating between his regular self and entering a trance-like state, the latter of which resulted in him shooting a Jedi Master named Tiplar during a battle and forcing a Republic retreat from the planet. Darth Sidious, the alter-ego of Palpatine, as well as his Sith Apprentice Darth Tyrannus, otherwise known as Count Dooku, learned of this from Admiral Trench, and planned to have Tup abducted during a transport to Kamino to investigate his erratic behavior, realizing that his current status will most likely result in their true plans for the war, including the contingency order, being exposed to the Jedi. The ARC Trooper Fives alongside Rex managed to retrieve Tup, although this also resulted in the former uncovering the order and thus the conspiracy. Fives would later end up being killed by Fox due to Palpatine framing him for an assassination attempt, and unable to tell either Anakin Skywalker or Rex about the contingency order, the overall conspiracy, or the Supreme Chancellor's involvement in it due to being drugged earlier. In 19 BBY, Order 66 was issued by Palpatine toward the end of the Clone Wars. The official reason given for its execution was the onset of an attempted Jedi coup against the Republic; in reality, it was the culmination of a chain of events orchestrated by Palpatine himself over a period of decades, all designed to end the Jedi Order and to bring about the domination of the Sith. Just days earlier, the Senate had passed the Security Act amendment, which gave Palpatine authority to disband the Jedi Order. After the death of General Grievous at the hands of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Masters Mace Windu, Kit Fisto, Agen Kolar, and Saesee Tiin stormed the Supreme Chancellor's office, intent on arresting Palpatine, who had been revealed to them as the elusive Sith Lord Darth Sidious by Anakin Skywalker. Kolar, Tiin and Fisto were quickly cut down by Sidious, but Windu was able to hold him off and eventually disarm him. Skywalker then arrived to find the Supreme Chancellor, looking defeated, attempting to surrender in exchange for his life. When it became evident that Windu was going to kill Sidious, Skywalker intervened, which gave the Sith Lord the opportunity to destroy the Jedi Master. Windu's "assassination attempt" provided the Chancellor with pretext necessary in order to see Order 66 enacted. Anakin Skywalker, for his part, was in a state of shock and confusion. Sidious, now scarred from the "attempt on his life," took advantage of Skywalker's emotional distress and pressured him to turn to the dark side of the Force. Unsure what to do and feeling he could never be forgiven for what he had done, as well as desperate to save his wife Padmé Amidala from the possibility of a presaged demise, Skywalker complied and was "knighted" by Sidious as his new apprentice, Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith. Vader would have an important role to play in carrying out his new master's plan. Execution of the Order At 2100 hours local time, on the one-thousand-eighty-ninth day of the Clone Wars, Palpatine retired to his private office in the Republic Executive Building, activated his comm unit and issued Order 66. He employed a channel that would make the authenticity of the order unquestionable, but ironically, the signal was encrypted using a Separatist code—one of the rare clues that he was, in fact, the hidden hand behind both sides of the war. Palpatine sent word out via the office of the Chancellor to all of the clone commanders in the army. The commanders displayed a variety of reactions to the surprising order, but since it came from the Chancellor himself, almost every single one of them carried it out without question or hesitation. On countless planets, Jedi were cut down by their troopers. The Jedi, who had been spread throughout the galaxy across disparate battlefields, were almost all caught totally unaware and easily gunned down. Three years of non-stop galactic warfare polluted the Force with the dark side, clouding Jedi perception even further. Because the clones harbored no malice nor hatred, but were merely following a legal order, they had no ill intent in their heart, which might have given some warning to the Jedi via the Force. Although it was impossible for Palpatine to have issued the order to every single commander individually, he did take the time to contact several personally before the Order was relayed throughout the army as a whole. Within the first minutes of the Order, several members of the Jedi Council had been killed; including Plo Koon on Cato Neimoidia, shot down by Captain Jag; Stass Allie on Saleucami, at the hands of Commander Neyo and CT-3423; Aayla Secura on Felucia fell to Commander Bly and members of the 327th Star Corps; and Ki-Adi-Mundi on Mygeeto, who managed to deflect a few shots before being overwhelmed by Commander Bacara and the Galactic Marines. On Utapau, Obi-Wan Kenobi was riding a varactyl named Boga when Commander Cody executed the Order, ordering an AT-TE to fire upon him, but Kenobi managed to survive and escape the planet. He soon reunited with Grand Master Yoda, who had also managed to escape a sneak attack by Commander Gree and a second clone trooper on Kashyyyk, beheading both clone commander and trooper in the process. Not all clone troopers obeyed the Order, however. On Murkhana, Roan Shryne and Olee Starstone were rescued from Order 66 by members of Ion Team. Led by Climber, they initially questioned the validity of the order, and even upon confirmation, refused to side with the government over those who had fought alongside them, having developed an affinity for the Jedi. Omega Squad, Delta Squad, and Ordo Skirata did not even hesitate to disobey the order, though all of them feigned compliance to avoid suspicion, as they had already formed doubts about Palpatine and his new Centax clones. Captain Maze, as well, did not execute Arligan Zey. In all other recorded instances, Commandos and ARC troopers obeyed it. Raid on the Jedi Temple On Coruscant, Senate Emergency Response announced a state of martial law over the planet, and declared the Jedi Temple under military lockdown. Order 66 authorized the newly christened Darth Vader and the 501st Legion to attack the Jedi Temple; however, deciding to take a more surprise-attack approach, a mission named Operation: Knightfall was devised where the 501st attacked any Jedi they found in the Temple—Masters, Padawans, even younglings. They also massacred non-Jedi staff, including administrators, trainers, and guards. No Jedi within the building were spared, but some escaped, including Shaak Ti, Sha Koon, Kazdan Paratus and Jin-Lo Rayce. Aftermath Although Order 66 greatly depleted the Jedi Order's ranks, with an estimated less than 100 Jedi surviving it, it was only the beginning of the Great Jedi Purge, which stretched on for years and would claim the lives of many of the survivors of the initial onslaught. Nearly all of the surviving Jedi Knights were hunted down and killed by Darth Vader, while Order 66 itself remained in effect indefinitely among the ranks of the Galactic Empire's newly-christened stormtroopers. Masters Kenobi and Yoda, like many others, chose to go into exile, on Tatooine and Dagobah respectively. There they managed to elude Imperial forces for many years, a feat few of their contemporaries could claim. ''Trivia'' Category:Clone Wars Category:Events Category:19 BBY